Designed By: Cade P-B and Jack Southron

At its crudest irony is sarcasm, a tool of insult; at its best, it adds force, pleasure, and grace. Mark Twain, a nineteenth-century American writer, used irony expertly in his humor: “If a person offends you do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance to hit him with a brick.”

Verbal irony always implies the opposite of what is said. The ironical writer presents a surface meaning- what is said- and an intended meaning- what is really meant. The reader must discern the difference. Irony- is from the Greek eironeia meaning “one who disguises or conceals in speech”; or in Socrates definition, “ignorance purposely affected…”

Another satirist, England’s Jonathon Swift, used powerful irony in his essay “A Modest Proposal,” In which he offers a solution to Irelands famine: A healthy young child is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled.

Swift used this grotesque, ironical image to plead forcefully for more humane treatment of the Irish.